Monday was a rocking and rolling day and the team performed 44 procedures! The breakdown by specialty for the day was:
4 – ENT — Dr. Shapiro was working mainly on ears
9 – Plastics — Many, many burn scars
13 – Gynecology — Hysterectomries, D&Cs, Diagnostic Laparoscopies
18 – General Surgery –Hernias, Hysrocelectomies, Bilateral Mastectomies, and an Open Heller Myotomy (more about that later)
It was a very long day as we made our way back to the hotel around 7:00pm.
We were all touched by a particular case of a 28 year old female who had been unable to swallow for about 2 years. She was emaciated weighing in at 28 kilos and nearing death from lack of nourishment. Her surgery was a little over 3 hours as she was scoped probed and determined that she would have the Open Heller Myotomy. We saw her this morning and so far so good. We will be following her story with more about her condition, her life and her prognosis in the next posts.
The team is continually blown away by the hospitality of our hosts at Kasturba Hospital. Their kitchen staff is diligent in making sure we are fed so that we have the energy to keep working, the OR staff is top shelf, and everyone is so very accomdating.
Photos to follow. Please check back.